Cyathi to Liters (cyathus to L)

1 cyathus equals 0.04548611111 liters (rounded).

1 cyathus = 0.04548611111 liters

How to convert cyathi to liters

To convert cyathi to liters, multiply the number of cyathi by 0.04548611111. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply liters by 21.98473282 (rounded).

liters = cyathi × 0.04548611111

Example: 10 cyathi = 0.4548611111 liters.

Pints, quarts, gallons and fluid ounces differ between the US and the UK. Units are labeled 'US' or 'imperial' to avoid confusion.

Approximate value. Standards for the cyathus varied by place and period, so this converter uses the most commonly cited value. Treat results as estimates, not exact figures.

About these units

Cyathus (cyathus)

Ancient RomanHistorical unit (no longer in standard use)Approximate value

One twelfth of a sextarius, about 45 mL. A small Roman ladle or wine cup.

Greek kyathos, a cup or ladle, lies behind the Latin cyathus. In Roman use it was the small dipper for taking wine from a mixing bowl and filling drinking cups, so it served as the basic unit for serving rather than for trade. Wikipedia lists it as 1/72 of a congius, or 45 mL, the figure used here.

It appears in both the liquid and the dry tables, where it is one twelfth of a sextarius, so twelve cyathi filled the sextarius and 576 filled an amphora quadrantal. The unit therefore inherits the uncertainty of the sextarius, which scholars estimate at 500 to 580 mL from surviving vessels, putting a cyathus somewhere between about 42 and 48 mL. In modern terms it is a little over one and a half US fluid ounces, about the size of a shot glass or a generous tablespoon and a half.

1 cyathus = 0.04548611111 liters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Ancient Roman units of measurement; Wikipedia: Cyathus (genus), on the Greek kyathos

Liter (L)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One cubic decimeter (1,000 cm³). The everyday metric unit of volume for drinks, fuel and cooking.

The liter was born in revolutionary France. In 1795 it was introduced as a republican unit and defined as one cubic decimeter, while the gram was tied to a cubic centimeter of water. The name comes from the older French litron, itself descended from a Byzantine Greek unit of weight, not volume. A small revision of the decimeter in 1798 left the first liter about 1.000974 of today's cubic decimeter, and in 1879 the international metric authorities adopted the liter with the symbol l.

The liter then took a strange detour. In 1901 it was redefined as the space taken up by one kilogram of pure water at its densest, which made it about 1.000028 cubic decimeters, and that muddled definition lasted until 1964, when it was restored to exactly one cubic decimeter. A capital L was added as an alternative symbol in 1979 because a lowercase l is easy to mistake for the digit 1, and NIST says L is the symbol to use in the United States. A liter of water is close to a kilogram, which is why a one-liter bottle feels like a kilo in the hand.

The liter is the reference unit for volume on this site.

Sources: Wikipedia: Litre; NIST Guide to the SI, Chapter 5: units outside the SI

Related conversions

See all volume units.